The invention relates to a guide for drawers and other such furniture parts, having a guide rail in the form of a track which can be fastened to the wall of a cabinet carcase, and a runner rail which can be fastened to the drawer, these rails being displaceable relative to one another on at least one roller rotatably mounted on the drawer-front end of the guide rail, and at least one roller rotatably mounted on the rearward end of the runner rail, each roller rolling on a flange of the other rail, while a displaceable adjusting element engaging the runner rail is disposed on the guide rail and permits the adjustment of the transverse free play of an associated drawer.
Drawer guides of this kind have become increasingly widely used in modern furniture, especially when used in pairs on opposite sides of drawers, slides, pull-out work surfaces, appliance carriers and the like, on account of the lesser effort involved in their use in comparison with sliding drawer guides. In the manufacture of furniture, inaccuracies constantly occur in the width of the drawers and in the open width between the walls of the carcase. These inaccuracies do not adversely affect the operation of the drawers, because the lateral shifting of the rollers resulting therefrom on the associated track flanges is possible, but so is lateral movement of the drawer across the direction of drawer movement, so that, for example, the vertical edges of the drawer fronts of several drawers arranged one over the other are no longer in precise alignment, resulting in an unsightly appearance. Moreover, the lateral guidance of the drawer is impaired increasingly as the drawer is pulled further out. A drawer drawn all the way out can then have considerable cross-play at the drawer front, even though the actual cross-play between the guide rail and the runner rail is relatively slight. To remedy this cross-play, it is known to dispose an adjusting element on one of the rails, preferably on the guide rail which is affixed to the furniture wall, thus permitting adjustment of the cross-play. In a known drawer guide adjustable for cross-play (DE-OS No. 31 09 021) the adjusting element is, for example, in the form of a sector which is mounted on the pivot of the roller on the front end of the guide rail so as to be rotatable by a given angular amount of about 90.degree. and which has in its portion projecting beyond the wheel circumference a margin of varying thickness. By turning the sector, marginal portions of different thickness can be brought opposite the edge of the runner rail flange that runs on the guide-rail roller, thus compensating for any play that might develop. The play adjustment with this sector has proven useful, yet the sector has to be placed on the pivot of the wheel at the time when the guide rail is installed. The retrofitting of the sector, or the removal of one previously installed is not possible without destroying it, because the wheel confronting the sector is permanently riveted on the pivot, i.e., it is not removable. This means, however, that the known drawer guide is provided with the adjusting element in every case, regardless of whether any adjustment is or is not necessary in the case of the piece of furniture on which it is later installed.
Accordingly, it is the object of the invention to create a drawer guide having a cross-play adjustment that is just as effective, but in which the adjusting element can be installed on or removed from the installed guide rail for the purpose of enabling the same drawer guide to be used either as a nonadjustable or as an adjustable guide. At the same time, it is to be possible to convert it from the one to the other type of drawer guide.